Market Access: Negotiations
By Innomar Strategies
Preparing for negotiations with payers can be daunting. George Wyatt, Executive Senior Consultant, Market Access at Innomar Strategies discusses the contracting phase, discounts and rebates, understanding exclusive and preferential listings in Canada.
Video Transcript:
At this point in time we don't need to pay payers to get a drug on a list. However, that doesn't mean that there's no negotiations. The contracting process is different in Canada than you would find in other countries like the US, or countries in Europe, but we don't have to pay to get on lists at this point in time.
Discounts on invoice are not common to get reimbursement for drugs in Canada. On the other hand, we do see rebates becoming more common. In other words, you know if a payer is expecting you to do a certain volume you'll have to pay a certain rebate. There's a slight difference between discounts and rebates, but that's the principle that's in place at the moment. However, with the changes of PMPRB we may indeed see some changes in this particular area going forward. We'll see how that works out.
It's not a common practice in Canada for payers to do deals that will allow a company to increase its market share. It's important to understand that contracting in Canada is not as sophisticated as you see in the United States for example in terms of some of the managed care arrangements.
On the other hand, we do see examples of exclusive listings in some cases, or there may indeed be preferential listings, and that could be that the clinical criteria are a little bit less for one brand versus another. Or the process for reimbursement, in terms of how the coverage gets applied, might be better for one drug than another in the class.
